Solid Appies? Argh.

[Sabovee]

My new Appy has a nice tail - I was surprised!

[atr]

My very spotty foundation-bred appy has a fabulous tail and mane.

[nightsong]

I'm not interested in spots, I'm interested in preserving the original Appaloosa BLOODLINES. That is a horse we don't want to lose; they're pretty impressive animals.

[abrant]

My insane mind's vision of the perfect appaloosa. This was an 18 year old gelding at a barn I worked at.

http://i75.photobucket.com/albums/i3...acohalter2.jpg
http://i75.photobucket.com/albums/i3...pacohalter.jpg
http://i75.photobucket.com/albums/i3...icappylook.jpg

It is my belief there is nothing uglier than a good appaloosa.

Paco was a wonderful horse - a h.u.g.e. mover.

Same is happening to POAs, btw, even though it specifically says that they are NOT in the rule book... they're becoming little appaloosas, so little quarter horses.

~Adrienne

[RHdobes563]

Okay, I'm confused.

My cousin has a registered Appaloosa. He is black with one white foot and no characteristics, other than one striped hoof. He looks like (and is bred) a "Quarterloosa." His registration papers say that he cannot be shown, and I e-mailed the Appaloosa Club of America, who confirmed this.

So, why are THESE solid-colored "Appaloosas" being shown?

[appdream]

Solid colored Appaloosa have to be inspected and have their DNA verified, inorder to get a CPO (Certified Pedigree Option - verifies parentage). Once they have their CPO they can compete in ApHC shows. This will be replaced next year by Perfomance Permits, which eliminates the inspections. You will pay less for a permit for a App to App bred horse, then for an App to outcross (OH, TB, Arab the only outcross the ApHC reconize) bred horse. Their parentage must still be DNA verified.

I have two solid Apps, both are from Appaloosa to Appaloosa breeding. My yearling possibly will roan out as she gets older, but only time will tell. I wish my girls had more Appy like tails. Three have tails that drag on the ground, the other two have tails that are below their hocks.

[zagafi]

One of them had a beautiful tail, how the heck do you get an appy with a nice tail like that, was it fake??
Sairna

My girl has a nice mane and tail, but I'm betting those in the show are mostly fake.

[cosmos mom]

My horse has very little mane or tail- the biggest problem with this is that I have nop mane for jumping xc!

[Delighted]

Any chance to post photos of my most excellent fat mare, Kate. Here she is doing a dressage clinic with an adult rider at our old barn (I'm in the background, on my solid appy, William - well, he's not 100% solid - he has frosting on his hips, but not enough to really notice).

http://i12.tinypic.com/48ecow6.jpg

With her first foal, Edward: http://i12.tinypic.com/4973syh.jpg

Edward as a weanling: http://i11.tinypic.com/2vafivm.jpg

And at 18 months: http://i11.tinypic.com/35bijxs.jpg

[Sandy M]

The tail thing varies with the different bloodlines. My Toby line Appy had a very lush, full tail, and I've seen pics of other Toby-line horses that also had full tails. My Old Painter bred horse had a long, but very very thin tail and I NEVER brushed or combed it except to wash it once in a while, or else it would disappear to barely hock length. I always hand picked it.

Yeah, you breed a minimally colored 1/2 QH to a QH, then breed the barely colored off spring to another QH and OMIGOD - the baby has no color! But its parents are registered "Appaloosas," so you blood type and CPO..... and another Quarterloosa hits the show trail. Grrrrrrrrrr....

Yes, even foundation bred Appies will produce no color babies - but most of those babies DO have characteristics and produce color if bred back to good Appy bloodlines. But do you think those 7/8ths QH no color horses will produce color unless they are bred to a homozygous colored stallion. Rarely.

There's nothing wrong with a good QH, but I say if you want a QH, buy one. Don't dilute and corrupt and existing breed and turn it into QH clones. True Appies are NOT QH. Yes, there is QH, TB, Arab and even ASB in there, because it is a recovered breed, almost destroyed at the turn of the century in the Nez Perce indian wars. Corrupted by the indians being forced to breed their buffalo/war horses to drafts, or horses killed outright. But when Thompson, Peckinpah and Hatley founded the registry and encouraged registration and breeding of Apps to reeestablish the breed, they crossed with Arabs and TBs as being closer to true Appy type. I imagine if Iberian horses had been readily available, they'd have used some of them. Some "QH types" (and I mean good foundation type QH, not halter herefords) were in there, but the modern wholesale outcrossing is destroying the breed and encouraged by the very registry that actually saved the breed. And they wonder why their registration numbers are down, while APHA numbers soar. Disgusting.

[SkipHiLad4me]

I used to have an Appy when I was younger who had an amazing mane and tail. It was one of the thickest tails I've ever seen on a horse and I never did anything to it! It was beautiful. I kept a lock of it after he passed away but I'm not sure where it is now


It really is appalling that so many solid Appys are being shown. The app association shouldn't even allow solid apps to show since it's such a trademark of the breed. Register them... just don't show them.

I own a Paint now and I too have noticed an increase in the number of "mildly painted" Paints Why buy a color breed if you don't want the color!?!?

[Auventera Two]

I've been watching the live feed of the Appaloosa World Show and have seen TWO colored Appies. The rest are all solid. Forget the peanut rolling (ugh) and four beaters (double ugh), where are the SPOTS??

These are "quarterloosas" they aren't REAL apps. World show or not. Registered or not, I don't care. When I think of Appaloosa, I think of the horses of 20 or 30 years ago. Not the crap they pump out today.

[fullmoon fever]

Nothing new with this trend...

I quit showing the App breed shows 20 years ago when it was apparent that ALL they were interested in were QHs. I could easily place the halter classes by the color (or lack thereof) w/o even giving a passing glance to conformation.

I stopped giving them my money a long time ago.

One of my guys is in my profile. 16.2hh, lots of colour and mane and tail to boot. I breed App sporthorses and although I definitely want a horse with good conformation, as App is supposed to be a colored breed, I also hope for a color pattern as well. I've only been disappointed a very few times.

That being said, I'm really tired of seeing ads from people who want horses and emphatically state "NO APPIES". I currently have a 2 yr. old filly who does not (and will never have) any colour. I defy anyone to pick her out of a field and say she is an App...99% of people believe she is a WB (she's 16.3hh and still growing ).

[Paragon]

My mother-in-law, who breeds Appies as a 'hobby' (hoo boy, expensive hobby) has a couple of solid Appy mares, but they're from bloodlines she favors, and they throw some LOUD color when bred to her leopard stallion.

Spots aren't everything... but they ARE kinda important.

[cosmos mom]

I look at the spots as a reward for dealing with the occasional stubborn appy days !

[Sandy M]

I look at the spots as a reward for dealing with the occasional stubborn appy days !

Well, you know what they say: The reason cowboys don't like Arabs and Appies is that in order to train a horse, you have to be smarter than it is!

My horse is a 2nd gen TB/App cross, full color, but boy is his personality totally Appaloosa. My previous two Apps were both Foundation bred - Toby line and Red Eagle/Old painter - 16 hands and 16.3, respectively, so Foundation doesn't necessarily mean "small." All my Apps have been full color. When horse hunting, I wouldn't even LOOK at a solid horse. Granted, there are some solid Foundation Appies, but while I admire Appaloosa soundness, sanity, toughness and interesting personality (not to mention athleticism), I say, if you're going to be a bear, be a grizzly: If I BUY an Appy (if you breed, you take what comes), I want it to LOOK like an Appy.

[fullmoon fever]

Well, you know what they say: The reason cowboys don't like Arabs and Appies is that in order to train a horse, you have to be smarter than it is!

Amen!

[Lisa Cook]

Sandy M. - interesting about your foundation-breds being so tall. I have a 5 year old foundation-bred, and he measured @ 16.2 last February. I've been scared to measure him again, because I'm afraid he might have grown! He grew over 2 inches as a 4 year old, go figure. I wish I had a $1 for everyone who has asked what he was crossed with - with the general guess being a warmblood of some kind. I did pull out his pedigree, and he doesn't have any of the bloodlines that you mention, so he must get his height from somewhere else. His mother was 14.3 and his father was 15.3!

On a different subject....do any App owners here who compete in the real world belong to ACAAP? (Appaloosa Competitive All-Breed Activities Program) It is supposed to "recognize the achievements of those Appaloosas competing in open and all-breed activities". The only reason why I know of it is because the person I bought my horse from handed me a ACAAP application, since my plans are to event this horse, she thought I'd be interested. But I've never seen the program mentioned in the past year of receiving ApHC Horse Journals every month.

Delighted - the change in Edward from a foal to 18 months is astounding! I never knew Apps could so dramatically evolve their coloring like that!

[Delighted]

Hey Lisa - yeah, Teddy likes to shock us all with his color changing. The dramatic change actually happened over about 3 weeks - I saw him once, before he shed out, and he was slightly roany, but still basically a dun. Then, three weeks later, he'd shed out to THAT. I haven't seen him in a few months, but my mom says that he's back to being a dun - so I guess his winter coat is sold, and his summer coat is, ah, not..

And I'd love to hear more about the ACAAP if you find out - I doubt William is App enough to count, but I'm pretty sure Edward would and I'd love to do something like that with him.

[GansMyMan]

Funny this should be started... I always wanted an appy, because they're smart and loud and hearty and because they weren't QH's. Never found one that actually was all of those things, though; and could be regionally competitive up to PSG and I could teach to jump and hence, hunt. So, now I'm back to OTTB's.